Working out miles per litre of petrol

andrewf75

If you're driving a UK car you don't need to do a calculation. UK cars have km/h as well as mph on a smaller dial.

An Irish or French car doesn't have mph at all so its a lot worse the other way round!

Iceweasel

andrewf75 wrote: »

I'm sure the same confusion arises in France or anywhere else. Its natural to be used to what is used in your home country. The problem is that we are used to a unit of measurement that should have been consigned to history at the same time they stopped teaching kids at school how to use these units!

I agree that there would/could be the same confusion in France or other European continental country.

But I think that it's the fact that because there is no language difference in Ireland some folks are caught out.

Nobody returns from France saying "I didn't know that the road-signs were marked in kilometres." Or do they? LOL

WTFH

Iceweasel wrote: »

But I think that it's the fact that because there is no language difference in Ireland some folks are caught out.

...and that they drive on the same side of the road as us.

andrewf75

Yes I agree its possibly more confusing in NI/Ireland.

Would make sense if NI was used as a trial run for switching the UK over to km

Iceweasel

I'm old enough to remember it being suggested that they have a trial experiment in Ireland where all the cars would drive on the right-hand side of the road as in mainland Europe.
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The idea being that after 6 months - if it was deemed a success -
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Then the trucks and buses would change over too.

Mojisola

TomsMom wrote: »

I pay for my insurance (quite low), son and d-i-l were added with no extra charge, and grandson pays for his insurance through Young Marmalade. I cover everything else, it's my choice to keep the car at the moment and to allow them occasional use of it and I am happy to pay tax, servicing, etc.

It's not about them paying me 45p a mile to use the car, it's about them putting all the petrol in and me contributing the cost of the petrol I use.

If it was me being as generous with my car, I'd be saying "I pay all the other costs of the car so you make sure it's got plenty of petrol in it for when I want to use it".

WTFH

Iceweasel, I believe that joke was written before we had imperial measures.

andrewf75

WTFH wrote: »

Iceweasel, I believe that joke was written before we had imperial measures.

yep its certainly an old one!

On a serious note, obviously it is no longer possible to switch sides of the road. As crazy as it is that countries drive on different sides, its something we will have to live with.

Changing from miles to km will happen at some point though, just a question of when.

WTFH

Sweden managed to switch from the correct side to the Napoleonic side back in the 60s.

It could, theoretically, happen.

Iceweasel

andrewf75 wrote: »

yep its certainly an old one!

On a serious note, obviously it is no longer possible to switch sides of the road. As crazy as it is that countries drive on different sides, its something we will have to live with.

Changing from miles to km will happen at some point though, just a question of when.

Yes - the old ones are the best!

I can remember when Sweden changed from the left to the right-hand side - but theirs was a strange situation where they drove on the left with Left-Hand-Drive cars!

I agree that I can't see the UK changing sides now.

As for changing to km, as I do most of my journeys on the Mainland of Europe, I have my sat-nav, speedo, odometer, and on-board computer all calibrated in kms already.

It shouldn't be a problem for the UK to change but it will be fiercely resisted by the likes of Nigel Farage et al.